Hillshire to buy Pinnacle Foods for $6.6 billion

Monday, 12 May 2014 | 8:54 AM ETReuters

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Packaged food company Hillshire Brandssaid it would buy Pinnacle Foodsfor about $6.6 billion including debt, adding products such as Duncan Hines baking mixes to its portfolio that includes Jimmy Dean sausages and Hillshire Farm luncheon meats.

Michael O'Sullivan, CIO for U.K. and EMEA at Credit Suisse Private Bank, discusses M&A activity and says it's now "running into reality" as governments, shareholders and investors are becoming more vocal.

Private-equity firm Blackstone Group, which owns about 51 percent of Pinnacle, has agreed to vote in favor of the deal, the companies said.

Blackstone took Pinnacle private for about $2.2 billion in 2007. The company returned to the stock market in March 2013.